The episode takes place over a single day, which starts when Homer, Bart and Lisa are called down to breakfast by
Marge only to find a sticky, gooey cereal called mueslix, which they do not want to eat. While Bart excuses himself to answer the door for Milhouse, Lisa helps Homer come up with an excuse to avoid eating breakfast.
Homer's day Lisa shows Homer her project for the school science fair, a grammar robot named Linguo, which Homer breaks by pouring beer down his throat. Shortly after, Marge accidentally severs Homer's thumb as she is cooking, and Santa's Little Helper runs around with the severed thumb, forcing Homer to chase him for it. Marge calls the police, but when they mistake her for an attempted murderer, she gives them a phony address. After Homer retrieves the thumb, he and Marge drive to the hospital; along the way they crash into Rainier Wolfcastle's car and then steal it. At the hospital, Dr. Hibbert claims that their finger insurance will not cover the cost as thumbs are not included, so they drive off for Dr. Nick's clinic. Since Homer's thumb is starting to shrivel, he stops at Moe's, where he gets a brine solution. He gets distracted when Moe offers him a beer, and then passes out. When Barney wakes him up with coffee, Homer rushes out and sees Marge is gone. He hitchhikes with Cletus who drives him to Dr. Nick's, but they discover the clinic is on fire. Homer asks Cletus to drive him to Shelbyville Hospital, but his truck gets stolen, leaving Homer to walk to the hospital. His thumb is almost completely shriveled up now, and he is about to throw it in a garbage can when an explosion blasts Linguo's head in the air and it lands next to Homer.
Lisa's day Lisa has to fix Linguo after Homer breaks him, missing the school bus as a result. Her bike is stolen and Marge and Homer drive off without her, so she runs around town before getting a ride from Krusty and his driver
Mr. Teeny. However, Mr. Teeny mistakenly takes her to
West Springfield Elementary School, where after walking into a French class, she has a whirlwind romance with Thelonious, a student who shares her interests. Still needing a ride, Lisa stops at Moe's Tavern looking for her dad, but he is not there. She spots Chief Wiggum and asks for a ride, but he is too busy tracking down Fat Tony with the help of an undercover informant with a wire. Wiggum botches the mission by announcing himself via the wire, with gunfire heard. Homer comes in just as Lisa leaves by the back door. Outside, Lisa finds Marge, who takes her to school after learning that Homer's at Moe's, but the car runs out of gas. Marge and Lisa see Cletus' truck and hitch a ride, but when he exits his truck they steal it and drive off to the school. However, they are forced to stop when Bart emerges from a manhole in front of them.
Bart's day With Bart letting him borrow Lisa's bike, Milhouse takes Bart to a cave he has found, which is full of fireworks. The duo test some, but accidentally set fire to Dr. Nick's clinic. Bart and Milhouse hide in a building, but are caught by the police because it actually has the phony address Marge reported. The police ask the boys to help them find the fireworks smuggler in exchange for avoiding juvenile detention. Bart and Milhouse find Fat Tony and his henchmen and surreptitiously offer to buy his fireworks. However, when Wiggum announces himself via the wire taped to Bart's stomach, Fat Tony realizes that they are undercover. Bart distracts him by lighting firecrackers before running off, so he chases the boys through the sewers until they emerge near Marge and Lisa. Having been chased down the street, Bart and Milhouse get cornered. To save them, Marge throws Linguo at the mobsters who proceed to taunt Linguo. Due to the gangsters' bad grammar, Linguo begins to
short circuit and sparks from his body ignite nearby fireworks, causing Linguo to explode and his head to launch like a missile.
Epilogue Fat Tony is arrested just as Homer arrives, but when Marge points out his severed thumb and Lisa's destroyed science project, Fat Tony proposes a solution: Lisa brings the mobsters to the science fair, and Legs successfully reattaches Homer's thumb while Lisa narrates the presentation for her class, earning her first place at the science fair. Marge remarks that it has been "one crazy day", causing everyone to laugh, but a fretful Mr. Teeny
implores the audience to "tell the people" that the episode's plot made no sense. ==Production==